AmberWeinberg.com » SEO

The Art of File Compression for a Quicker Loading Website

Brian Flores — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:30:17 +0000

Google rewards fast loading websites with higher rankings in the organic search results. So, with that being said, shouldn’t you be doing everything that you can to ensure that your website is loading as quickly as possible? Unfortunately, there are a ton of reasons to why your website may not be loading fast enough. The good news, though, is that I have a few file compression recommendations that should help your pages load faster.

First, make sure that your website is IE 8 compatible. You can do this by inserting a META Tag in each of your web pages. The tag below will be useful in compatibility rendering.

Now you that you have remedied slow loading website due to an outdated IE version, you can now go to the specifics of minimizing your file sizes.

Gzip is one of the most popular software tools for file compression and decompression. However, there are times when Gzip is actually the cause of the slow load time. Nevertheless, there many other compression tools out there that web designers use in replacement of Gzip that create the effect that’s meant to take place with file compression, which is speeding up web page loadtime.

Here’s a handful of great tools to get your website load time up to speed:

Packer- A JavaScript compressor that gives you a detailed step by step guide on how to compress and decompress your website’s files. It comes equipped with a run-time JavaScript decompression piece
JSMin – This is known as one of the safest compressors out there because it doesn’t change your files’ variable names as they go through the compression process.
Dojo ShrinkSafe – This tool caches JavaScript and CSS files, while at the same time crunches the variable names.
YUI Compressor – This tool combines the safety features of JSMin and the impressive compression levels of Dojo ShrinkSafe. Since it’s a two in one deal, you get to have a compressing tool that’s 100% safe and has twice the efficiency as most of the other JavaScript compressors out there
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Google Closure Compiler – This application not only compressed your files the way others work, but it also checks your JavaScript codes for error during the process of compression. Other tools compile from the source language to the machine code, but the Google Closure Compiler converts, identifies and corrects your errors. It comes with Google’s “Closure Inspector” which debugs JavaScript errors.

Building Findable Websites

Amber Weinberg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:30:41 +0000

Building Findable Websites by Arron Walter is one of the best books I’ve read on the subject of SEO, web standards and accessibility in the world of code.

Aimed specifically to developers, Building Findable Websites is 264 pages based on several topics. This isn’t a regular SEO book, but teaches “findability” through good coding practices, including best practices for Flash, Javascript and AJAX. It also includes basic SEO information on keywords in titles, alts and density.

I skipped over a few sections because it included basic information I already knew or beginners info on things like using Feedburner, but I still found a ton of relevant material to keep me interested.

The book has a ton of resources and code examples and even gives access to several bonus chapters on online.

You can find Building Findable Websites on Amazon for $30.

35 Books All Freelance Web Developers Should Read

Amber Weinberg — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:30:59 +0000

If you follow me on Goodreads, you know that I absolutely love to read. I’ve always been a big reader, but since I’ve become a freelance I’ve made sure to read even more than usual, in the field of business, development and the web in general.

Reading is essential to any developer’s improvement. While blogs and magazines are great to read for a quick update, nothing replaces a good informative book. Even though web development isn’t the most interesting topic to read about, I’ve been able to find a lot of interesting and informative books over the years that have helped me to improve both my dev and business skills.

Read the rest of my post on FreelanceFolder »

20 Must Have WordPress Plugins For Every Website

Amber Weinberg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:40:52 +0000

I’ve reviewed several plugins before, but since I started using WordPress as the CMS for almost every site I do now, I’ve amassed some great and very essential plugins.

Some of these make the user experience better, but a lot of these work in the backend to help the actual functionality of the site out. While it’s best to have as few plugins as possible to speed up the site, I’ve had no problems running all 20 of these plugins on a regular shared server.

Read the rest of my post on Carsonified »

eCommerce Series: How to Add Your Sitemap To Google Webmaster Tools

Amber Weinberg — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:49 +0000

Recently, we talked about how to verify your store’s site with Google Webmaster Tools and why it’s important to do so.

Now let’s talk about how to start using the Webmaster Tools. The very first thing you should do is to upload your sitemap.

View the rest of my post on CoreCommerce »

eCommerce Series: How To Write An Effective Product Description For SEO Purposes

Amber Weinberg — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:30:59 +0000

There are millions of stores on the web that customers can buy from. Because of that, it’s very important to make sure your store is unique, optimized for users and easy to use. All of this, however, won’t matter if no one can find your store.

In order for people who have never heard of you to find your store, you need to be high on search engines’ list of results when users search for something related to your products. This is called search engine optimization.

View the rest of my post on CoreCommerce »